The 2025 MotoGP lineup for Tech3 Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini have won 15 grand prix victories apiece, and counting.
The sum of Tech3’s prior MotoGP lineups since joining KTM in 2019: Prior to his arrival, Danilo Petrucci, an unsuccessful 2021 signing, won two grand prix in addition to Miguel Oliveira’s two victories with Tech3 in 2020. That is all.
Bastianini has worked with Ducati for four years. In his ten years in MotoGP, Vinales—a former rider of Suzuki, Yamaha, and soon Aprilia as well—has experienced the majority of the grid.
The only other KTM-era Tech3 newbie who has ever come from another manufacturer’s MotoGP program is Ducati veteran Petrucci, who joined Tech3 last year after being pulled back into the fold. Espargaro, on the other hand, has experience with both Yamaha and—surprisingly—Honda.
It’s obvious that this team’s culture, goals, and expectations are evolving.
It has never really been necessary to state out loud that Tech3 is the “Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri/RB” to KTM’s “Red Bull Racing.” The lineups and the liveries from the years before GasGas branding also made this obvious. It has been the location of the Moto2 alumni.
Not any longer.
Additionally, Pedro Acosta, the best KTM junior rider in Tech3 to date, is joining the factory squad at the same time as this changeover.
There are several reasons why this is the right time for KTM to reorganize its youth development squad into its wingman squad in order to support a championship campaign.
With what Acosta has accomplished in his first season, KTM need to be aiming for the 2025 championship with him. In order to accomplish that, it must compete with Ducati, which has an intimidating Pecco Bagnaia/Marc Marquez lineup in addition to at least four other bikes—possibly even six—in its fleet, the most of which are race winners. KTM also requires the depth and experience of a superteam. It has it now.
Drawing a connection with Red Bull F1, one could argue that with Acosta as KTM’s Max Verstappen, the rest of the junior project may begin to veer off course.
Here, that isn’t the case. It is unnecessary to introduce KTM’s junior program, which is full of talented riders who are currently riding for other Pierer Mobility Group brands and many of them will eventually be on the MotoGP grid. The only problem is that the present Moto2 crop lacks any standout possibilities that would make you choose to forego this “superteam” lineup.
David Alonso, of Moto3, is expected to be its next best option. However, given Acosta’s outstanding transition to MotoGP, KTM may want to consider a similar strategy with Alonso, giving him a few Moto2 years to maximize his chances of dominating MotoGP in 2027 rather than fast-tracking him.
A partly fresh start was necessary and available to KTM in the meantime, considering the way Augusto Fernandez and Jack Miller were performing. Regardless of who else was on the market or what KTM’s ambitions were for 2025, neither was making a compelling case to be retained.
Thus, additional power, depth, and expertise for a winning bid: check. Tick out the obvious underachievers from the starting lineup.
However, having Vinales and Bastianini on board also allows KTM the latitude to take a step that would have been unimaginable only four months ago. Destroy, or let go of, the guy who has represented its aspirations for almost the whole 2020s.
Okay, so it has been almost three years since he last won a grand prix. However, Brad Binder has been the racer you expect to see pushing himself down the inside of a Desmosedici, getting into a dust-up with Jorge Martin or Bagnaia, and surpassing everyone else on the same bike more than anyone else throughout the Ducati dominance years. Despite fielding eight Ducatis, the team finished fourth in the championship last year and about a hundred points ahead of the next best non-Ducati.
Binder on a Ducati would certainly be a contender for the title. Was Binder not overachieving on the KTM? Binder will compete for a title when KTM is prepared, isn’t that right?
All those previous certainties now seemed significantly more brittle when Acosta left Binder completely in his shadow from the beginning.
Now, just two spots and sixteen places behind Acosta, he is still in seventh place in the championship. However, there have been more errors, more confused slow weekends, and no anticipation that Binder will no longer hold the top KTM position.
His collection of work in MotoGP from 2020 to 2023 is still exceptional. It’s easy to argue that 2024 is the exception, regardless of what caused it—this year’s bike, this year’s tires, or simply a startled realization of how excellent Acosta has been. that Binder, who won in just his third-ever MotoGP start or interrupted Bagnaia and Martin’s thrilling Buriram fight last year, will return soon.
Or you conclude that Binder hasn’t accomplished enough and wonder what an Acosta-caliber player would have done with those 2020–23 KTMs.
Keeping Acosta was the easy choice—if at all possible, forever. Unfortunately, dumping Miller and Fernandez was almost as simple.
Remarkably considering his MotoGP record to date, Binder has emerged as KTM’s long-term problem. Furthermore, if KTM hopes to defeat Ducati, it really cannot afford to have any doubts in its lineup, even with Acosta joining the team.
We know that Binder has been KTM’s true level and that Acosta is merely an unearthly inflating of it if Bastianini and Vinales start to trail Acosta as well after they’ve adjusted to the RC16.
In addition, their presence provides KTM with some clear alternatives for 2026 if the arrivals also make it necessary to reevaluate Binder’s efforts thus far.
Or, if KTM is truly committed to bringing the Red Bull F1 mentality to MotoGP, even mid-2025.